Take the politics out of legislative district drawing

If you were to find that you were playing in a rigged game at a casino, you wouldn’t put any more money into what was a predetermined loss, but with our elections that is what we have been doing. Every 10 years, the U.S. Constitution requires a census to be taken and then to have legislative districts redrawn according to that census. In the past, like other states, they have been drawn to benefit whichever party, Democratic or Republican, is in control of that state’s government. In Michigan that’s the Republicans.

This distorts the will of Michigan’s citizens. In 2016, Democratic House of Representative candidates received 2,302,417 while Republican candidates received 2,283,727, a slight (30,000 votes) Democratic advantage, but instead of Michigan’s congressional seats reflecting that 50/50 split, the GOP won nine of the 14 (64 percent).

Political manipulation of district boundaries has a very similar effect on Michigan’s governance. Despite a near 50/50 split in total votes cast for the state house, Republicans have a 63-47 advantage. This is gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering is the purposeful dividing of election districts so as to give one political party a majority in many districts while concentrating the voting strength of the other party into as few districts as possible. This is achieved by ‘packing’ a large number of voters from the opposing party into a few districts to concentrate their votes and ‘cracking,’ where the majority party spreads the opposing party’s voters among multiple districts to dilute their influence.

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There is a reason The Nation published an article headlined, “Michigan Suffers From Some of the Most Extreme Gerrymandering in the Country.” All one needs to do is look at a map, the 14th Congressional District, which resembles a bloated snake, that runs from Downriver Detroit up to Northern Pontiac, was ‘packed’ with Democratic voters, they received 78.5 percent of the vote, almost as ‘packed’ was the 12th (64.4 percent Democrat), while the nearby 11th is cracked with enough Republicans, 52,9 percent, to win.

With State House Districts, you need to look no further than Mt. Pleasant. At one time it shared a district with Big Rapids and Ferris State. When that looked to be leaning too Democratic, Big Rapids was split to another district and Alma was added and when that became too tenuous for the GOP, Mt. Pleasant was drawn into a district with very red, rural Midland County. If not for redistricting, this middle-of-the-mitten district might have elected a Democratic, which it hasn’t done since the 1930s.

Here is a glimpse, inside the smoke-filled room, at how redistricting works from MLive,

“As lawmakers prepared to vote on those maps, former Democratic state Rep. Lisa Brown recalls being summoned into a private room near the back of the House chamber. She says a top Republican lawmaker showed her two potential maps. One kept her home in the same district while the other shifted her neighborhood into a predominantly Republican district to the east.

“Brown said she was offered a deal: Vote with Republicans or get stuck with the less-favorable map. She declined.

Several states have set up commissions to create fairer, more non-partisan, districts. The majority of new districts will be in blue states. Sates (with) commissions for congressional and legislative redistricting: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Jersey, Washington. States with Legislative redistricting only: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania.

In Michigan there is an attempt that could make the State House, State Senate and congressional districts more closely reflect the voters’ will. Voters Not Politicians collected the required 315,654 valid signatures in 180 days to get a proposal on the ballot.

Voters Not Politicians was started when 28-year-old Katie Fahey posted, “I’d like to take on gerrymandering in Michigan. If you’re interested in doing this as well, please let me know,” on Facebook. With that simple post it took off.

Even more impressive, was that there was no big money behind this ($150,000 cam from small individual donors) and volunteers collected the petition signatures. You can’t get much more grass roots than that. Most ballot proposals spend a half million dollars to get on the Michigan ballot.

Local Team Captain Steve Swaney saw a presentation and “thought it was worthy” of his time. You may have seen him, Teresa Turner and others collecting signatures at the Farmers’ Market in Island Park (opens Thursday). They collected 3,000 signatures locally.

Voters Not Politicians proposal would set up an Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission with 13 members; 4 Democrats, 4 Republicans, and 5 Independents. Political insiders (politicians, consultants, lobbyists) will be banned from serving on the Commission. A minimum of 2 Democrats, 2 Republicans, and 2 Independents on the Commission must approve the final maps, which prevents one political party from controlling the process. The ICRC is required to conduct its business in public hearings that will be open to input from across the state. (For more details go to the Voters Not Politicians website, VotersNotPoliticians.com.)

That is if Michiganders are allowed to vote on the proposal. Last week, the Republican chair of the Board of State Canvassers Norm Shinkle canceled the meeting to certify the petition signatures to qualify the proposal for the ballot.

Gerrymandering isn’t just a federal and state issue, it reaches down to the local level. Isabella County last drew up its County Commission Districts in 2011. The task was given, by state law, to a Commission consisting of a representative from each party, the County Prosecutor, the County Clerk and the County Treasurer. Which means it was controlled, as it has been, 4 to 1, by local Republicans. With that the Republican-controlled commission put Democratic incumbents David Ling and Jim Moreno into the same County Commission district. Ten years earlier the Republican controlled redistricting Commission had put Democratic incumbents David Ling (D) and Thompson “Thom” Moffit into the same district. Moffit decided not to run again and Moreno moved a few blocks to another district.

After years of service, Ling is not running for re-election. But in a final twist, the person running to replace Ling, the one county commissioner most affected by redistricting, is Steve Swaney (D), who became interested in running because of his involvement in the anti-gerrymandering Voters Not Politicians. Maybe its karma.